113P/Spitaler

Periodic comet November 2025 113P/Spitaler 113P 2022-12-01 image ZTF-sso-520-zr-fov-4.0arcmin.png Spitaler's Comet as seen from the Zwicky Transient Facility on 1 December 2022 Spitaler_1890a Rudolf Ferdinand Spitaler Vienna, Austria 17 November 1890 P/1890 W1, P/1993 U2 1890 VII, 1994 III 1890f, 1993r jpldata MPC 31 March 2024 (JD 2460400.5) 132.41 yearsobs_arc 1,022 2.143 AU 5.246 AU 3.694 AU 0.41994 7.101 years 5.775° 306.66° 115.63° 92.763° 2.929 1.138 AU 0.477 AU 1.15 km miTancredi_2006 14.7 19.6IAUC_5885 1 June 2022 11 July 2029Horizons2029 Comet Spitaler is a Jupiter-family comet with a 7.1-year orbit around the Sun. It is the only comet discovered by Austrian astronomer, Rudolf Ferdinand Spitaler. Observational history 1890 apparition and discovery While attempting to observe C/1890 V1 (Zona), which was just discovered about two days earlier,Kronk_2003 Rudolf Ferdinand Spitaler spotted a new comet on the night of 17 November 1890.Spitaler_1890a He described it as a very nebulous object positioned very close on where Zona's Comet was predicted to be, albeit fainter than the latter.Spitaler_1890b Both comets were found within the constellation Auriga.Spitaler's Comet was reportedly discovered at the following coordinates: α 5 27.3, δ 33 37Kronk_2003 It was last detected on 4 February 1891, when Spitaler described it as very faint and diffuse.Final reported position in 1891 were: α 5 04.6, δ 39 56Kronk_2003 Loss and recovery Spitaler, together with George Mary Searle, James Francis Tennant, and John Russell Hind, calculated orbits based on the observations, but despite predictions of a return in 1897, it was lost and remained so for the next 102 years. Around this time, the comet made two close approaches to Jupiter between 1947 and 1983, at distances of 1.318 AU e6km unit and 0.401 AU e6km unit, respectively.jpldata On 24 October 1993, the comet was rediscovered by James Vernon Scotti from the Spacewatch survey.IAUC_5885 It was confirmed as the same object as Spitaler's Comet when Brian G. Marsden calculated its orbit and connected its 1890 and 1994 apparitions.Marsden_1995 It was then subsequently observed on every apparition up to the present day.Yoshida Physical characteristics Photometric observations of the comet until 2000 revealed that the nucleus of Spitaler's Comet has an effective radius of around 1.15 km mi.Tancredi_2006 Notes "obs_arc" Observation arc from the Minor Planet Center database covering dates from 17 November 1890 until 15 April 2023. References Horizons Batch for 113P/Spitaler on 2029-Jul-11 JPL Horizons Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi?batch=1&COMMAND=%27113P%27&START_TIME=%272029-Jul-09%27&STOP_TIME=%272029-Jul-14%27&STEP_SIZE=%273%20hours%27&QUANTITIES=%2719%27 2022-06-21 (JPL#51 Soln.date: 2022-Feb-22) J. V. Scotti S. Nakano S. M. Larson etal B. G. Marsden Periodic Comet Spitaler (1993r) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/05800/05885.html IAU Circular 1993-10-28 5885 1 1993IAUC.5885....1S 113P/Spitaler – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=113P ssd.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2025-11-20 G. W. Kronk Cometography: A Catalog of Comets https://books.google.com/books?id=5XXjVF8fuGkC&pg=PA660 Cambridge University Press 2: 1800–1899 660–662 2003 978-0-521-58505-7 B. G. Marsden G. V. Williams Catalogue of Cometary Orbits IAU 1995 10th 1995cco..book.....M 113P/Spitaler Orbit http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=113P Minor Planet Center 2022-06-21 R. F. Spitaler E. Weiss Entdeckung von zwei neuen Cometen Discovery of two new comets Astronomische Nachrichten 126 6 95–96 10.1002/asna.18911260608 de R. F. Spitaler Comet Spitaler (1890 Nov. 16) Astronomische Nachrichten 126 8 121–122 1890AN....126..121S 10.1002/asna.18911260808 G. Tancredi J. A. Fernández H. Rickman J. Licandro Nuclear magnitudes and the size distribution of Jupiter family comets Icarus 2006 182 2 527–549 2006Icar..182..527T 10.1016/j.icarus.2006.01.007 S. Yoshida 113P/Spitaler http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0113P/index.html aerith.net 2024-01-06 2025-11-20 External links 1000146 113P 113P/Spitaler at the Minor Planet Center database 113P/Spitaler at Gary W. Kronk's Cometography 113P/Spitaler at Kazuo Kinoshita's website 113P/Spitaler at Seiichi Yoshida's website 112P/Urata–Niijima 114P/Wiseman–Skiff Category:Periodic comets 113P 0113 113P 113P 18901117 * #